PyCon Australia 2013 News

PyCon Australia needs volunteers!

Submitted on 2013-06-25 11:04

With just ten days until the start of PyCon Australia 2013, it’s time for us to call for volunteers -- we need your support to make PyCon AU a huge success. Over the course of the conference we will be needing session chairs, people to man the registration desk and general volunteers.

Session chairs and only need to commit to being in one room between two breaks (e.g. from the end of morning tea through the beginning of lunch). You can take up these roles and still see all of the talks in one room for a session -- just nominate which sessions you'd be happy to chair in your reply and we'll try to allocate you to them.

Session chairs are responsible for managing one room for a block of presentations between two breaks. Their job is to:

Introduce the speakers
Keep speakers on time
Ensure the session is kept in order
Passing the audience microphone to questioners (this helps make sure our video recordings are of a very high quality).

Our registration desk will be open on Friday morning, Friday night and Saturday morning.

We need four volunteers to make short work of the 300+ delegates that we are expecting. Outside of those rush hours we’d like to keep the desk manned to answer delegate queries and deal with late check-ins.

Finally, any volunteers who can be on call throughout the conference to assist the organisers would be greatly appreciated.

For those who can make it, we plan on running a briefing session on Friday afternoon, sometime around 1:00pm (time to be confirmed).

If you're interested in volunteering for any of the roles that we've described above, please reply to contact@pycon-au.org.

We look forward to hearing from you!

--PyCon AU 2013 Organising team.

Mark Pesce and MooresCloud brings the Internet of Things to PyCon Australia

Submitted on 2013-06-21 10:26

A world where every device we interact with is aware of our surroundings, and is reacting to them. That's the promise of the Internet of Things. As computers that can run Python get smaller, the prospect of building intelligent, connected, world-aware devices is becoming more real for Python Programmers. To help explain where Python fits into the Internet of Things, MooresCloud Co-Founder and CEO, Mark Pesce, will be joining PyCon Australia 2013 as its dinner keynote presenter.

Inspired by the promise of the Internet of Things, MooresCloud have for the past year set themselves to work on producing intelligent, internet-aware devices. They're also huge fans of Open Source, and Python in particular.

Holiday, MooresCloud's flagship device outwardly looks like a harmless string of Christmas lights. Under the hood, it's a fully-fledged Linux-based computer, it connects to the Internet using WiFi, and best of all, it's fully programmable using Python.

To help connect Holiday and the Australian Python community, Mark will be at the conference, both to lead a sprint on IoTAS, the software that drives Holiday, but also to run hacking sessions on Holiday itself.

We're looking forward to it!

About PyCon Australia

PyCon Australia is the national conference for the Python Programming Community. The fourth PyCon Australia will be held on July 5--7, 2013 in Hobart, Tasmania, bringing together professional, student and enthusiast developers with a love for developing with Python. PyCon Australia informs the country’s Python developers with presentations, tutorials and panel sessions by experts and core developers of Python, as well as the libraries and frameworks that they rely on.

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au) and Google Australia (www.google.com.au); also our Gold Sponsors, the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

About MooresCloud

MooresCloud designs, develops and manufactures hardware, apps and services that make lighting sensitive, intelligent, and interactive. With the launch of Holiday, MooresCloud brings tomorrow's tech to fairy lights, creating the world’s first programmable, interactive and intelligent holiday lighting. For more information, see www.moorescloud.com.

PyCon Australia registration and accommodation deadlines fast approaching!

Submitted on 2013-05-28 17:45

With little over one month remaining before PyCon Australia 2013 kicks off in Hobart, Tasmania, there are some important conference deadlines fast approaching. There's just one week left to book conference accommodation at the conference venue, and only registrations completed before the end of Tuesday 11 June will include a conference T-shirt.

Accommodation -- Book by Wednesday 5 June

Our conference venue, Wrest Point, has a number of hotel rooms reserved for PyCon Australia delegates, at guaranteed prices. These are good value-for-money, and are all very close to the conference rooms.

These rates will only be guaranteed for delegates who reserve their rooms on or before Wednesday 5 June 2013. For details of prices, room types, and how to book, see our website at /register/accommodation

To reserve your room, one night's (refundable) deposit must be paid on reservation.

Conference Registration -- Register by Tuesday 11 June to guarantee your t-shirt

Conference registrations will be open until just before the conference kicks off, unless we sell out earlier. However, we need final numbers for our t-shirt supplier a few weeks beforehand. So, if you want your conference t-shirt, please register before Tuesday 11 June!

If you've got any queries about the conference, registration or accommodation, please don't hesitate to get in contact with us through e-mail at contact@pycon-au.org

See you here in July!

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

Revealing the PyCon Australia 2013 Programme

Submitted on 2013-05-06 21:35

Now that we've announced both of our keynote presenters, PyCon Australia is very proud to be able to reveal the rest of the programme for the 2013 conference, to be held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 July 2013, following DjangoCon AU and the PyCon AU OpenStack Miniconf on Friday 5 July 2013 in Hobart, Tasmania.

Following a record-breaking response to our Call for Proposals the conference will feature three full tracks of presentations and tutorials, across two days, covering all aspects of the Python ecosystem, presented by experts and core developers of key Python technology.

Our keynote presenters, Alex Gaynor, software engineer at Rdio and core contributor to many Python open source projects, and Tennessee Leeuwenburg, software engineer at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology will be joined by a wide array of presenters covering a broad range of backgrounds, including industry, research, government and academia.

As ever, PyCon Australia is a great place to keep up-to-date with the latest trends in Python web technology: Django lead developer, Jacob Kaplan-Moss will be presenting on Building secure web apps: Python vs the OWASP Top 10. As well as DjangoCon AU, the main conference will feature talks on testing, deployment, and optimisation of Python-based web apps.

For the first time, we've packed out an entire stream of talks on using Python in the Sciences. Centred around Edward Schofield's tutorial, Modern scientific computing and big data analytics in Python, there are also talks on the amazingly versatile IPython Notebook, and the Pandas numerical library.

We've also made sure that beginners, or people looking to brush up on their Python skillset, have a clear path through the conference. Starting with Peter Lovett's Python 102 tutorial, you can rapidly enhance your knowledge of Python, and then you can attend our general stream talks to glean a snapshot of the state of the art in Python.

The full schedule for PyCon Australia 2013 can be found at /programme/schedule/saturday

Registrations for PyCon Australia 2013 are now open, with prices starting at AU$44 for students, and tickets for the general public starting at AU$198. All prices include GST, and more information can be found at /register/prices

We're looking forward to seeing this excellent programme brought to life at PyCon Australia 2013, in Hobart, in July.

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

Solve your problems with Python - Tennessee Leeuwenburg joins PyCon Australia 2013 as a keynote presenter

Submitted on 2013-05-01 19:08

PyCon Australia, the national conference for the Python programming community is happy to announce that Tennessee Leeuwenburg, one of the veterans of the Australian Python community will be joining the 2013 conference as a keynote presenter.

PyCon Australia 2013 will be held in Hobart, Tasmania on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 July, 2013, following DjangoCon AU and the OpenStack Miniconf on Friday 5 July.

As a long-time software developer at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and currently a leader of the software development team responsible for the first draft of most Australian weather forecasts, Tennessee has a long history of translating between programmers and the requirements of experts outside the field of Computer Science:

"The tools of developer teams, like revision control and code reviews are great for software quality, but not everyone outside your team will know how to work with them.", Tennessee says.

But there is another way: "By using a variety of techniques and technologies, you can tap into the expert knowledge of others more effectively", Tennessee notes. "Tools such as sharing gists, demonstration sessions and screencasts, along with emerging Python tools like the iPython Notebook are a great way to get others involved in problem solving."

"Knowing how to use these tools quickly and effectively can also be a great way to explain problems to management, or to walk them through a complex requirement."

A long-time member of the Australian Python community, Tennessee is on the editorial team of The Python Papers; his interests include artificial intelligence and automation, topics he has presented at every PyCon Australia since the first conference in 2010, and before that, numerous Open Source Developer Conferences.

We're looking forward to hearing Tennessee's keynote, which is sure to be a great insight into bridging the divide between developers and pepople from outside the field, at PyCon Australia in July. Conference registrations are now open at /register/prices

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

PyCon Australia introduces wide-ranging financial aid programme

Submitted on 2013-04-30 18:05

Following in the footsteps of PyCon North America, PyCon Australia is introducing a generous financial aid programme, so that some attendees and speakers have some, or in rare cases, all of their expenses such as flight, hotel and admission provided to them from the conference budget.

PyCon Australia strongly encourages people to apply for financial aid -- even if we can’t cover all of your expenses, we will give you free admission based on need. The application process is simple, and straight forward. It’s also very liberal -- the only caveat is that speakers at the conference "get bumped to the top" of the applications so that we don’t lose a good talk because of financial need. We also don’t ban anyone from applying.

Essentially, the financial aid programme is the PyCon Outreach program - it's the community holding up the community and making itself accessible at this major event through these financial grants. It is the very spirit of the conference; make the information, knowledge, friendships and connection available to everyone.

The generous contribution of the Python Software Foundation has helped us in kicking off this programme. Financial aid is core to the mission of the PSF -- The mission of the Python Software Foundation is to promote, protect, and advance the Python programming language, and to support and facilitate the growth of a diverse (http://www.python.org/psf/diversity/) and international community of Python programmers.

Google Australia has also generously contributed to the financial aid programme, so that we can increase the pool of financial aid available to deserving women, in order to help reduce the barriers to attending PyCon Australia.

To apply for financial aid to attend PyCon Australia, applicants must fill out the application form found at, /grants - the first round of aid applications will be awarded after Friday 17 May.

Eligibility

Anyone interested in attending PyCon Australia is eligible to apply for financial aid. Grants are allocated on the basis of need, and applications will be assessed by our financial aid panel.

Cases that will be looked upon favourably include, but are not limited to:

Presenters with accepted proposals, who would otherwise not be able afford to attend the conference.
Contributors to Python Open Source projects, looking to participate in the post-conference sprints.
Members of Python-related user groups, looking to bring knowledge back to their local community.
Members of groups that encourage diversity in computing and technology, including PyLadies groups, looking to bring knowledge back to their local community.
Students interested in Python, who can contribute knowledge of Python back to their peers.
Teachers looking to contribute knowledge of the state of the art in Python back to their students.

In short, anyone whose attendance at PyCon Australia will help improve the Python community in Australia, or around the world, is invited to apply.

For more information on the grants programme, and for information on how to apply, see our financial aid programme page: /grants

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

PyCon Australia 2013 Early Bird registrations almost sold out!

Submitted on 2013-04-27 16:54

tl;dr: PyCon Australia's Early Bird registrations are on sale until this Friday, 3 May -- or until we've sold 80 tickets. There's fewer than 20 left now, so hurry! Find out more at /register/prices, including details of our accommodation programme.

Are you planning on coming to PyCon Australia 2013, the national conference for the Python programming community? If you've been putting off your registration, now is an excellent time to act: there's fewer than 20 Early Bird tickets left for the conference, and these WILL sell out before the deadline of Friday 3 May.

Early Bird registration rates are available from $165 for "Enthusiast"-level tickets, or $420 for our all-inclusive "Professional"-level tickets; each of these represents a saving of more than 10% on our regular prices. All tickets include access to the CodeWars event on Friday 5 July, and the post-conference sprints on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 July.

Professional tickets include access to DjangoCon AU or the OpenStack Miniconf on Friday 5 July, admission to a Miniconf is available to Enthusiast ticket holders for $44.

For full details of what comes with each of our tickets, and for more information about the conference itself, visit /register/prices.

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

Alex Gaynor to present keynote at PyCon Australia 2013

Submitted on 2013-04-17 08:47

With half of our Early Bird tickets sold, we're very pleased to announce core Django, PyPy, and CPython developer Alex Gaynor as the first of our keynote presenters for PyCon Australia 2013, to be held on July 6--7, alongside DjangoCon AU on July 5, in Hobart, Tasmania.

It's hard to find members of the Python community with more diverse interests than Alex. As well as his contributions to Python and Django, he works as a Software Engineer at Rdio; he's also responsible for Topaz, a Ruby implementaton (completely written in Python, of course).

These interests have led him to wonder about the type of work programmers do: "Are we engineers? Are we scientists? Craftspeople? Something else entirely? Are software engineers, software developers, software architects, and programmers all really the same thing?", asks Alex. "My keynote explores the nature of our work as programmers, and its relationship to the scientific method."

As well as being a regular presenter at Python conferences all over the world, Alex serves as a board member of the Django Software Foundation and as a member of the Python Software Foundation.

We at PyCon Australia can't wait to hear Alex's insights on the role of the prorgrammer in July! Registration is open at with Early Bird rates available to the first 80 paid delegates, or until Friday 3 May, 2013.

Photo credit: Heroku.

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsors, Google Australia (www.google.com.au), the Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development, and TasICT. For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

PyCon Australia 2013 Call for Proposals closes this week!

Submitted on 2013-04-01 15:39

This week marks your last opportunity to submit proposals to present at PyCon Australia 2013, the national conference for the Python programming community, to be held on July 6 and 7 in Hobart, Tasmania.

The deadline for proposal submission is Friday April 5, 2013, and more information can be found at http://pycon-au.org/cfp

PyCon Australia is an excellent opportunity to share experience and knowledge with like-minded Python developers from all walks of life -- we attract professional developers from industry, government, science and education, along with enthusiast and student developers. Presentations can be targeted at all skill levels, on any topic related to Python programming.

This year, we're welcoming DjangoCon AU under the PyCon Australia umbrella, it'll run on Friday 5 July, before the main conference. Every Django-related proposal we receive in the PyCon Australia CFP will also be considered as part of the DjangoCon AU programme.

Our OpenStack Miniconf is running a separate CFP, and first-round submissions close on April 9. Details can be found at the OpenStack Miniconf CFP site.

If you're a first-time Python developer, don't be afraid to submit a presentation -- we're a community-driven conference, and we have a focus on building the next generation of Python programmers.

We can't wait to see your proposals.

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsor, Google Australia (www.google.com.au). For full details of our sponsors, see our website.

PyCon Australia 2013 Early Bird registration and Accommodation deals now available!

Submitted on 2013-03-26 13:44

tl;dr: PyCon Australia early bird registrations are now open! Find out more at /register/prices, including details of our accommodation programme.

PyCon Australia is excited to announce that early bird conference registrations are now available for our 2013 conference, to be held on Saturday 6 and Sunday 6 July in Hobart, Tasmania. Early bird registration will be extended to the first 80 confirmed conference registrations, or until Friday 3 May, whichever comes first.

PyCon Australia is the national conference for students, enthusiasts and professionals working with the Python programming language; it represents a unique opportunity for Python developers to meet fellow developers, and gain knowledge from experts and core Python developers from around Australia and the world. Securing your registration during the early bird period ensures your place at all of the events that PyCon Australia has to offer.

Early bird registration comes with a substantial discount for tickets at our "Enthusiast" and "Professional" rates. Early bird tickets at both the "Enthusiast" and "Professional" level are guaranteed a seat at our conference dinner. All tickets include access to the CodeWars event on Friday 5 July, and the post-conference sprints on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 July.

Early bird registration starts at $44 for full-time students; $168 for enthusiasts and $420 for professionals.

This year's conference also features two single-day miniconfs, being held on Friday 5 July: DjangoCon AU, the first national gathering of Australian Django developers; and the Python on OpenStack Day. Entry to these miniconfs is free for professional delegates, and $44 for students and enthusiasts.

PyCon Australia has been working closely with our venue to provide a great conference experience; we're very pleased to be able to offer accommodation to delegates for the duration of the conference. We've secured an allocation of rooms within the Wrest Point complex. Rooms available to delegates start at $135 per night; rooms with wired internet access start at $157 per night.

Information on conference registration, including details on how to book delegate accommodation through our preferred provider can be found at the PyCon Australia website ().

Our conference Call for Proposals is still open, and will close on Friday 5 April.

We can't wait to see you in Hobart in July!

About PyCon Australia

To find out more about PyCon Australia 2013, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org or e-mail us at contact@pycon-au.org.

PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum sponsor: Australian Computer Society (Tasmanian Branch) (www.acs.org.au); and our Gold Sponsor, Google Australia (www.google.com.au). For full details of our sponsors, see our website.